Every summer the Southwest School of Dance in Marshall, Minnesota holds a week-long dance camp at Southwest Minnesota State University.Zac Hammer, one of our daughter's friends, took lessons at the dance school in town for five years, 10 to 15 years old, went on to study dance at Southern Methodist University, and now dances professionally in New York. Last winter he danced in the renowned Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular, and he'll do so again this year. For the past four summers he's returned to Marshall to teach at the dance camp. At the end of the week, the dancers present a showcase of dances, and the dance teachers each perform as well, always a treat, a bit of NYC right here in fly-over country. Tonight Zac performed a modern dance duo with one of the other teachers. The artistry and intensity were beyond amazing, one of those "out-of-Marshall" experiences.

Phil Dacey, poet and SMSU professor emeritus of English, who now lives in Manhattan, loves the art of dance and loves to write about it. While Jim and I were at a writing conference in NYC, we introduced Phil to Zac. Later Phil interviewed Zac and wrote the poem below (published in The Raintown Review, Dec. 2008), which he gave me permission to post here. He captures Zac's spirit and energy, and the form he chose makes the poem move like modern dance, creates great music. Enjoy!

I recently found a quote by Voltaire that encourages us to read and to dance, two of my favorite things: "Let us read and let us dance, two delights that will never do any harm to the world."

ZAC HAMMER

“A peanut butter bagel,” he orders. “Breakfastfor a dancer. Protein.” We’re midtown, 8th Avenue,near where he’ll rehearse at noon. But firsthis dancing’s all in words for this interview:

“I can eat like a pig, and drink like a fish--water, that is; by the gallon jug in the studio.”Outside the cafe window, the morning rushdoes its own dance, a classic of color, noise, and flow.

“Ballet, modern, post-mod--I like it all.But I’m at home with modern, how it gets downon the ground, so much so even a crawlcan be part of it. That feels more human

“to me than ballet, which favors the vertical,transcending the earth. But modern’s bare feet bringus close to the source, the mother. Sole on soil.My god is gravity; let it do its thing.

“Still, I remember my first ballet shoes.I bought them at K-Mart in Marshall, Minnesota.I thought they were beautiful. And they were. But I wasno aspirant to the world of Anna Pavlova--

“to my sister’s, yes. One day she’d come home from classand shown off her developee. One leg held straight outat right angles to the other, arms raised. The stressmade her tremble; I trembled in awe at the sight.

“I want to do that, I told my parents, whoweren’t surprised, given the shows--song and dance--I mounted for them in their bedroom all throughchildhood (I was now ten). My first audience!”

Pause for coffee, bagel, and fond thoughts.Then a turn: “The smokers in dance are what I don’t like.Whole corps de cigarettes, trashed lungs. I don’t get it.The smell of sweat sure beats the smell of smoke.

“And there are the jobs one takes to make ends meet.For many summers, I performed at Mary Kayconventions. Once I was hired to impersonatea dancing bottle of champagne--Veuve Clicquot!

“But the pleasures make the struggles all worthwhile.You wouldn’t believe the endorphin rush. It’s addictive.And to pursue the same line of work as AngelCorella...Well, it’s not a bad way to live.

“Corella’s great because he combines the virileand the tender, the muscular and the lightest oftouches. As to the dead, Nijinsky rules:his Rite of Spring pissed everybody off.

“I’d love to dance it someday. To throw myselfpercussively to the floor as the music pounds.To hulk and make the most of the body’s heft.Beauty’s not what’s pretty but what offends.”

That’s Whitman, too, I say. “Yes, he wore his hatindoors or out, right? If I could dance in the roleof Walt, I’d portray him as both athletic and sweet.Hey, a poetic version of Angel Corella!

“In fact, I’ve long believed the arts should serveeach other. What fun, and more, to blur the linebetween arts! If I had two lives to live,I’d live one as an art historian.”

A book about dance? “What influenced me mostwas Zen in the Art of Archery. It taughtme to see that the dancer at his or her bestis all at once archer, arrow, bow, and target.”

The clock’s hands are doing their usual soft-shoe.“Dancing with the David Parsons Companyhas made going to work--what I’ve got to donow--a pleasure. My one-year anniversary

with them is coming up soon. I’m riding a wave.”Goodbyes, and then the wave and he are gonedown 8th Avenue--a stage where every movehe makes is spotlit by a midday sun.

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I love to play with words. To capture moments on the page. To explore the physical and spiritual geography of what I call "fly-over country." I write from imagination, observation and my own experience of wandering in fly-over country--the literal, physical spaces of my life on the Minnesota prairie and the inner territory of the soul.

I teach writing at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, Minnesota. I enjoy cooking and traveling with my husband Jim, reading, practicing yoga, playing tennis, biking, hiking and gardening.